On paper, Sweden looks like one of the safest countries in the world to be a journalist. In Reporters Without Borders’ 2026 World Press Freedom Index, the country ranks 5th out of 180 nations, a mark most governments would envy. But a new report released by RSF just days before Sweden’s 13 September general election tells a more complicated story: one of quiet erosion, growing hostility toward reporters, and a public-access tradition under strain. The report, titled “Closed Doors: Local Journalists on Press Freedom Challenges in the 2026 Election Year,” surveyed 25 permanently employed journalists working in local and regional Swedish newsrooms between March and May 2026. It does not claim to be statistically representative of the profession as a whole. But the pattern it documents is consistent enough to be alarming: transparency is shrinking, harassment is common, and many journalists expect things to get worse, not better. A Ranking

As South Africa’s anti-migrant movement passed its self-declared June 30 deadline for undocumented foreigners to leave the country, journalists covering the unrest increasingly found themselves the targets of the very violence they were sent to document. At least 15 journalists have been targeted across South Africa in recent months. News24 journalist Sakhiseni Nxumalo was threatened while filming an assault on a Zimbabwean man in Pietermaritzburg, with protesters accusing him of being a foreigner because of his skin tone and demanding he delete his footage. Days later, a News24 intern covering a demonstration in Boksburg was surrounded by protesters carrying whips who questioned his nationality and forced him to sing the national anthem to prove he was South African. The pattern extends beyond physical intimidation. Journalists at several major outlets, including Business Day, GroundUp, the Sowetan, and the South African Broadcasting Corporation, have faced online harassment, doxxing, and accusations of bias

When John Dramani Mahama was sworn in as Ghana’s president in January 2025, he promised to usher in what he called an era of true media freedom. Eighteen months later, that promise looks increasingly hollow. According to a detailed investigation published by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in June 2026, at least 17 journalists have been attacked in eight separate incidents during Mahama’s tenure, and in nearly every case, no one has been held accountable. What the investigation found CPJ’s reporting is not built on secondhand accounts. Journalists directly involved in each incident were interviewed to determine what, if any, justice they had actually received. The pattern that emerged is stark: state actors were responsible for roughly half the attacks. Police officers, firefighters, and soldiers were behind eight of the assaults, while illegal miners and unidentified individuals attacked the remaining nine. Some of the documented cases include: In every